NCIS - Bad timing
by Bonasena
Summary: Gibbs and Sloane are on a stakeout together for the night and the chemistry between them might set off some reaction - if they are not interrupted by bad timing. this story is not related to any episode of the show. it was just a little something that popped in my head.
1. Coffee

**Note: I have a few stories in progress right now. I am working on a Christmas story I am going to post throughout December and I am in the process of a chapter for my profile the profiler story about episode 1708(i loved that episode). this is going to be a few chapters long(depending on how people like it) as always please let me know what you think of it, and... ENJOY**

It had been a long week for the team. They had been chasing a drug-dealing group of sailors all week, trying to take them down. They finally managed to get a possible usable tip about a deal going down late Friday afternoon. Bishop had been talking about all week that she has a friend from Oklahoma coming to visit for the weekend and McGee had big plans with Delilah and the Twins. He had talked all week about how they were going to an amusement park for the weekend as a nice little family getaway. Torres had been chatting on and on about some hot date he had planned with the new girlfriend that he was very eager to share details about but not her name. He just talked about how hot she was. It had been driving the rest of the team crazy all week and the lack of leads in the case and the pressure from Vance hadn't exactly made anyone's moods better. Jack had an old body from the army coming for a visit. She had been so excited about that for days. Gibbs, on the other hand, didn't have any plans. He was probably going to be spending the entire weekend in his basement working on his boat and drinking bourbon. When the lead came in late Friday afternoon and it finally seemed like a break in the case everyone was exhausted. They just wanted to go home and spend the weekend as they had planned.

Gibbs had decided to take the first stakeout. It was right across from an empty apartment where he was going to stake out all night. He grabbed the gear he needed and headed to the destination. The lead had addressed that something might go down at around midnight near a bar here a lot of sailors were known to hang out.

Gibbs arrived at the apartment and sat up the camera in front of the window and put the extra cups of coffee he brought on the table. He then went to take a shower. He brought some more comfortable clothing to wear for the night. He had just put his comfortable jeans on and was drying off his hair with a towel when he heard footsteps in the apartment. Gibbs looks over at where his clothing is nicely folded, but his service weapon is not there. He left it in the living room. No one was supposed to be in the apartment or even know he was there. The apartment is an NCIS stakeout and occasional safehouse. Gibbs needs to come up with a plan to overman this intruder. He turns off the light and slowly opens the door just enough to be able to peak into the living room. He saw a tall figure dressed in black walking around in the living room. It seemed like the person was searching for something in the living room. When the person finally stopped moving around in the apartment and was standing with the back to Gibbs looking at the camera near the window Gibbs took the opportunity to sneak up on the person. He wasn't wearing shoes or socks which made a sneak attack on the person from behind even easier. He grabs the person by his arm and throws him over his shoulder and locks his arm in a twisted position for the person not to be able to reach for the gun that Gibbs identified the person was carrying on the hip. As soon as Gibbs grabs the person's arm, he notices the person is unusually skinny considering he was expecting it to be either a criminal or another agent.

"Federal Agent," Gibbs says angrily when he has the person in a locked position faced down on the floor. He is sitting on top of the person, pinning the face down to the floor and locking the arm on the back. He has disarmed the person and placed the person's weapon in the back of his pants on his lower back. the person stops resisting as soon as he identifies himself as a federal agent.

"What the hell." Gibbs recognizes the voice of Jack Sloane.

"Jack?" he says surprised and gets off her and turns on the light. She stays down on the floor and looks up at him. he looks at her apologetic once she looks up at him.

"What the hell are you doing here, Jack?" He asks a bit irritated and then helps her to her feet. She gets up and brushes off the dirt of her black coat. She was wearing a black hat and black gloves which were probably why he didn't recognize her.

"quiet a welcome, Gibbs." She says a bit irritated and looks over at him. he notices she is staring at him and he then looks down at himself. he is only wearing jeans and no shirt. She looks away and blushes. He walks to the bathroom and grabs the blue NIS shirt he was about to put on when he was alerted to the unexpected visitor. He comes back into the living room. She is standing near the window looking at the camera. Gibbs walks over to her and stands beside her. she is looking out the window, but she can feel he is looking at her.

"what are you doing here?" he finally asks and takes the cup of coffee she has in her hand from her and takes a sip. It is one of his cups he brought with him that she has taken from the table. "I thought your friend was coming to visit?"

"he isn't coming family emergency. He had to stay home," she says with a shrug. He can see she is a bit upset about the canceled visit. She was so excited when she had talked about it a few days earlier. "I figured I could keep you company instead."

"you don't have to Jack."

"I know…" she says nonchalant and starts taking off her jacket and her gloves. She places her coat on a chair and then comes back to Gibbs who has stayed near the window, just observing her. "Based on the welcome I got I would say… you don't really want company." She says with a teasing smile. He looks down a little embarrassed.

"Sorry about that Jack. You could just have identified yourself."

"I did." He exclaims. He looks confused at her. he never heard her come in. "I heard the water running so I figured you didn't hear me." she takes back the coffee cup from him and takes another sip. She knows that he has figured out it is one of his cups she has taken. She has a playful teasing smile in her eyes as she is taking another sip of the coffee cup.

"ya, think." He says and takes the coffee cup back from her and takes another sip. He can taste her on the lid of the cup. She notices a sweet and playful smile in his eyes as he is staring at her while he is taking a sip of his coffee. They are holding the eye-contact while he is taking a sip. She hasn't noticed that playful and teasing but, yet sweet smile in his eyes before. He lowers the coffee cup from his lips but never breaks the eye-contact with her. she reaches over to take the cup from him, but he is holding on to hit. He is not letting it go. She looks at him and without a word, but just facial expression tells him to give her the cup, but he isn't. all he does is keep looking at her with the same playful and teasing smile. She starts giggling like a teenager just from him looking at her like that. She isn't sure what he is up to.

"give me the cup. it was mine." She demands, even though she knows it was his coffee.

"yours?" he asks with a raised eyebrow. "I brought 3 cups of coffee when I arrived. I only see 2 on the table now. She reaches out for it, but he moves it away from her.

"come on Gibbs." She begs and tries to reach for it and almost pushes him off his balance when he grabs around her and they almost both lose their balance.

"don't make me fight you for it."

"I think we already know who would win that fight," Gibbs says very confident and takes another sip of the coffee while he is just starring at her teasingly over the cup. he takes a long slow sip of the cup. she is waiting for him to finish his provokingly long sip of the coffee.

"Yeah we do…" she says confidently.

"me…" they both say in sync and they both start laughing. Jack looks out the window to avoid having Gibbs noticing that she is blushing from the way he is looking at her.

"heads up." She says and the mood is suddenly turned focused and professional again. They see one of their suspects walking down the street. Gibbs places his coffee cup on the table and starts snapping pictures. Jack quickly makes her move to grab the cup.

"ha, ha." She says gloating to proclaim her victory and then places the cup to her lips to take a sip but to her unpleasant surprise… the cup is empty. She looks over at Gibbs and sees the devilish sideways smile on his face as he continues to snap pictures.


	2. Pizza

**Thanks for reading this. I hope you enjoy it. let me know what you think. I always try to hit the characters as precise as I possibly can so please don't hesitate to let me know if there is something you think is very unlike the characters.**

Gibbs and Jack have settled down in the stakeout apartment. They have been in the apartment for about 2 hours now. They have decided to take shifts at the window watching for their suspect. So far only one suspect has shown up and entered the bar. Nothing interesting has happened yet. Jack wanted to take the first shift, but Gibbs argued against it, being a gentleman, he wouldn't let Jack take the first shift, so Jack accepted and dropped down on the couch. Gibbs is standing at the window, looking over the street. He gets the feeling that Jack is checking him out from where she is laying on the couch, but he isn't going to call her out about it. it just makes him smile. He sits down on the chair behind him, so he still has a perfect view over the street. He adjusts himself in the chair so he also can look over at Jack. She seems so relaxed. She is laying down against the corner of the couch. Her eyes are closed. and there is a faint smile on her lips.

"Stop starring at me, Gibbs." She says and opens her eyes. Gibbs looks away from her and out of the window. Jack stands up and walks over to him. she stands behind him and rests her hands on his shoulders. He leans back and leans his head against her stomach.

"anything interesting happens?" she asks.

"Nope," Gibbs says and takes a sip of his coffee cup and then offers it to Jack. She looks suspicions at him.

"are you handling me an empty cup again?" she asks with her eyes clenched to look even more suspicious at him. he makes an innocent-looking expression and it makes her smile.

"first of all…" he says once she has taken the cup and taken a sip. "I didn't hand you an empty cup. you where the one who took my cup in the first place." He says and looks her with a confident look.

"I don't recall the specific details…" she just says and walks away from him with a smile. She knows she can't win that battle.

"I'm hungry." She says as she is walking around the apartment.

"I think there are some take out menus over there in one of the drawers." She walks over to the appointed dresser and starts looking for the menu. Suddenly as she is looking through the content of the 3 drawers she starts laughing. She takes something out of the drawer and looks back at Gibbs. She is holding some very X-rated men's magazine in her hand.

"FBI uses this place too." Gibbs just says and they both start laughing. Jack nods in understanding and puts the magazines back where she found them and continues her search for the take-out menus. She finds the menus and brings them over to Gibbs. She sits down next to him and starts looking through them. Most of them are ripped or have coffee stains on them.

"Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Thai…" Jack reads out and looks over at Gibbs to gets his approval of any of the suggestions, but none of them seem to fit his cowboy-stake taste. Jack finally gets to the last one which is almost unreadable due to various strains that have smudged the writing on the menu. Basically, the only readable word on that menu is the word "Pizza". There are some pictures from the restaurant, and it seems like someone has had their fun drawing a mustache on the people on the pictures.

"seriously. Is that the maturity level of NCIS agents on a stakeout?" she asks and shows Gibbs a drawing of what she supposes is a penis.

"I don't know." He says and shakes his head. He knows some agents lose a great deal of maturity while being on a stakeout. "It looks like something McGee and DiNozzo would do back in the days. They were behaving like grounded kids when they were on a stakeout together. The longer a stakeout took the more immature they would get and it would normally take a few days for them to get back to their normal maturity level, not that that was abnormally high on a daily basis at the office anyway." It makes Gibbs laugh just remembering how Tony and McGee would drive each other's crazy doing stakeouts. "but…" Gibbs says and takes a sip of his coffee and turns serious again. "as I said FBI uses this apartment for stakeouts too." They both start laughing. Jack knows all too well about Gibbs's sometimes problematic and interesting relationship with the FBI.

"I'll order some pizza." She says and reaches over and squeezes his hand. It seemed like a natural thing for her to do and then she stands up and grabs her phone in her pocket. First, when she is a few steps away from Gibbs and he seems to be focused on what is happening on the street, Jack realizes that she took Gibbs's hand like it was a natural thing. Gibbs didn't seem to notice what she did, so she just let's go of it and turns to focus on finding a somewhat readable phone number to the pizzeria on the menu.

Jack ordered the Pizza over the phone and then went to the bathroom before she sat down next to Gibbs in front of the window.

"anything interesting happening?" she asks and looks over at the camera Gibbs is sitting with, in his hands where he is flickering through the pictures he took earlier when the suspect arrived at the bar across the street.

"nope. 3 dirtbags have arrived so far."

"that could indicate that something is going down soon," Jack says trying to sound optimistic.

"or it could mean that they are getting drunk and hooking up and nothing worth our time is happening tonight," Gibbs says irritated and stands up. He seems rather unhappy.

"Everything alright?" she asks. He stops walking around and rubs his forehead with his fingertips before he looks at her with an apologetic smile.

"Yeah, Jack." He says and sits down next to her. her hands are resting in her lap. He reaches over and takes her hand in his. "I just feel this is a waste of time. We are sitting two people wasting our time on a Friday night watching drunk sailors."

She intervein their fingers as she is looking at him trying to get him to look into her eyes. he finally looks up and meets her eyes. They are so soft and dark. She has a sweet smile on her face.

"I don't mind being here." She says barely audible. She surprises herself by the low sound of her voice and how that simple sentence expressed more feelings in her voice then she intended it to.

"Thanks." He responds also barely audible. They are just looking into the eyes of each other. she has come to love looking into those steel-blue eyes of his. They are always so filled with passion. The softness in her dark brown eyes is something that has crumbled his walls down almost from the first time he saw her. they are so close right now. Despite being in an old stakeout apartment in one of the most disturbing parts of Washing DC there is something happening. Jack has this relaxed feeling washing over her body tonight. She has felt it before… often when she spends the evening at Gibbs's house. Then it makes sense to her feeling relaxed and comfortable with the closeness because then they are sitting on his couch in front of the fireplace, watching a movie and drinking a beer. But it doesn't make sense to her tonight. They always keep a professional and appropriate distance at work. It is only at the comfortable privacy of Gibbs's living room that they normally get a little closer to each other. She has a feeling that it isn't right to hold hands with her coworker doing an official stakeout. Technically they are on duty right now and should be behaving just as professional as they would do in the office, but Jack doesn't want to take her hand away. She likes the feeling of Gibbs holding her hand like that. It is comfortable in some way.

Gibbs looks over at Jack. Her mind seems to be wandering. He can't quite tell what she might be thinking about. Normally he likes to think that he has become pretty good at reading Jack. Right now, with their fingers intervened in the darkness of this stakeout apartment he isn't sure if he is overstepping any professional boundaries with her. he doesn't want her to feel uncomfortable or run off because he is overstepping her boundaries. When he took her hands in his it was only to test… to see if she would pull away from him. she took his hand earlier, right before she went to order pizza. She probably did it without even thinking about it and she probably didn't even notice she did it, but he did. He noticed it and he absolutely didn't mind. He has come to like the closeness with her. When Jack comes over to his house and they have dinner and watch a movie together. They always end up sitting close. The last time she was there she snuggled into his side and rested her head on his chest. The other times she has come over for a movie night she has just sat there beside him and one time she rested her head on his shoulder, but not more than that. It seems like they have grown closer over time. He isn't sure what is happening between them tonight, but he is fairly certain that something is happening. He isn't sure if he should move on it or if that will spoke her away. He isn't even sure if she feels the same way and… he isn't sure what he feels. For now… he is just enjoying the closeness and the feeling of holding her soft hands in his.

He is gently rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb. He looks over at her and she seems so relaxed, as she is leaned back in the chair. She has taken her shoes off and tucked her legs up under her. he is never going to understand how she can be so flexible… He is mentally kicking himself for thinking like that about his friend. He notices she starts shivering. He looks back over at the couch where she was sitting earlier and sees an old blanket laying there. He gets up and releases her hand. He hates himself for it, but he doesn't want her to be cold. She looks back at him as he is getting up and walks over to the couch. She then looks at her watch. It was at around this time they agreed to switch so he could relax and then she was going to be on window duties. She is hating herself for thinking that she wouldn't mind if he stayed and kept her company at the window, but she also knows they made an agreement that she was to take over at this time. To Jack's big surprise Gibbs comes back with the blanket. He stands in front of her and wraps the blanket around her so only her face is free of the blanket. He is leaning forward so close to her to stuff the blanket down her back, so she doesn't get the cold breeze that is coming in from under the door.

"Better?" he asks once he is done and he stands back up.

She just simply nods with a sweet smile. She likes how he is taking so much care about her.

"year thanks."

He sits down next to her again and looks out the window over the street. She reaches her hand out from under the blanket and takes his hand that is resting on his leg. She looks up at his face to see if he is reacting to it. he doesn't look at her or retreat his hand. She suddenly loses her courage and tries to pull her hand back, but he is gently tightening his grip. It makes her smile and she notices a sideways smile on his face, but he never looks at her. she feels a lot bolder now then she did earlier, and she leans her head on his shoulder. She once again looks up at his face to test if she has overstepped any boundaries, but his respond reassures her. he simply places a kiss on her forehead. She knows she shouldn't be thinking like this but right now she wouldn't mind if nothing happened with the sailors tonight. She could easily stay like this for a while.

The moment is broken when it knocks on the door and they hear young man's voice announcing: "pizza delivery." Jack is amused when she hears Gibbs growl as he gets up to answer the door.


	3. your timing Stinks!

**note: the title for this chapter is actually a Mark Harmon quote from his role in reasonable doubts(s1e21) he is just about to kiss a woman and then he gets interrupted and he forcefully grabs the guy who interrupted them and says "your timing Stinks." and it is such a perfect line... I couldn't let it go. It is a perfect scene with Mark Harmon. I hope you enjoyed it. Please as always let me know what you think.**

Gibbs and Jack ate the pizza and afterward spend about half an hour looking out the window. The only thing happening was two young men who were clearly not old enough to be at the bar, got kicked out. Another man got kicked out by the doorman for what appeared to be violent behavior. Jack had commented that he was probably being too handsy with some of the very young women they had seen enter the bar earlier. They have just been small-talking about everything and nothing, but something has changed. They haven't spoken about what happened earlier. At first, there was an awkward atmosphere between them, but then Gibbs reached over and grabs Jacks hand while she was telling him a story from when she was in the army. She told him about a friend of hers and suddenly, once he took her hand it changed and they were back to being nice and comfortable again.

Jack even at one point placed her feet on Gibbs's legs just to see if he would just push her away, but he didn't. Instead, he started massaging her feet for a little while. She enjoyed it and if it hadn't been for her strong will to stay awake she probably would have drifted off to sleep slowly. Gibbs did notice that she slowly closed her eyes for a longer period of time. It made him smile. Shannon used to fall asleep like that when he was massaging her feet. Jack seemed to relax but she wouldn't be comfortable sleeping in that chair. So Gibbs, despite the strong will of wanted her to stay right there with him told her she could go and lay down and take a nap on the couch. Jack had opened her eyes and straightened herself up a bit and taken her feet down on the ground to force herself to stay awake. She sat up straight for a little while but slowly relaxed more and more and eventually she rested her feet against the wall. They sat in silence after that just looking out the window. Watching the people who started to arrive at the bar. More and more people started to arrive.

"I don't get it," Gibbs says and takes a sip of his coffee. He is on his last cup now. Jack looks over at him. she was almost about to fall asleep when he spoke. Gibbs realizes that and mentally slaps himself in the back of the head for not just letting her rest.

"you don't get what?" she asks.

Gibbs points out the window to a couple of very young girls walking down the street towards the bar. They are wearing very high heels and very small tight skirts and bras and a jacket that isn't covering their stomachs.

"that." He says. Jack straightens up a bit to get a better look at the young women.

"young women? Haven't you been married 4 times?" she jokes. He chuckles too at her comment.

"yes but… I don't get it. it is freezing outside, and they are wearing… that."

Jack laughs.

"oh, Gibbs you are getting old. That is fashion." Jack settles down again. She is almost laying down on the chair with her feet resting on the table. She seems so comfortable snuggled up under the blanket.

"what? To freeze to death?" he takes another sip of his coffee.

"no…they want attention."

"From who? The only people they are going to get attention from when they are dead is Ducky and Palmer."

"you don't want to see it. do you?" she asks when she is realizing he is just messing with her.

He shakes his head. "I don't get it, Jack."

Jack takes her feet down from the table and leans forward towards him and places her hand on his face and looks into his eyes.

"you… are a cowboy." They both start laughing. "you are just too much of a cowboy to understand modern fashion, Gibbs." She jokes. Suddenly the mood changes when she realizes she has her hand on his face. He turns his face slightly and kisses her palm. He leans into her touch. He places her hand on knee. Their faces are so close to each other know. He can smell her perfume. He is looking straight into her dark brown eyes. they seem darker than usual and more intense then he has seen before. They are so close now. Their lips are almost touching when they hear a gunshot from outside the window. They look out and they see 4 guys in a fight. Gibbs grabs his weapon and runs out of the apartment. Jack quickly puts on her shoes and follows him. by the time Jack comes out of the building Gibbs is engaged in a fistfight with 3 against one. Jack calls for back up before she joins in the fun to help Gibbs. Within a few minutes and not without being in the receiving end of a few punches Gibbs and Jack manage to take the main suspect, Jose Honduras, and two of his suspected minions, who are also serving together in the navy, down. Gibbs is sitting on top of Jose Honduras as he is handcuffing him. Jose is trying to wriggle free by trying to get Gibbs pushed away.

"stop trying. You are just looking ridiculous in front of your minions Jose." Every time Gibbs tries to place the handcuffs on Jose he is moving his arms.

"hey…" Gibbs says and grabs the man's jacket and pushes him over, so he is laying on his back. Gibbs is almost throwing him onto his back.

"hey man… you almost broke my shoulder." Jose complaints.

"guess what? I don't care," Gibbs says and throws the man back on his stomach to finally manage to lock the handcuffs on him.

While Gibbs is dealing with Jose Honduras Jack is taking down two of Jose's minions. 2 young petty officers who don't seem to be anymore then early 20. Jack gets them to lay down on the grown and sits down on top of one of them to handcuff him. she is a few feet in front of where Gibbs has taken Jose down. She is pinning down her suspect with her knee to his back and takes out the handcuffs. Gibbs notices that Jose is starring at Jack's ass.

"hey." He says and grabs the guy by the collar of his jacket forcefully.

"Hey man, I was enjoying the view. Is she your girlfriend or can I rent her for a couple of hours?" he asks in a little to sassy tone. Gibbs most of all want to beat the crap out of the guy, but Jack looks back at him and tells him with a look to control his temper.

"Hey, Jose," Jack says, and Jose and Gibbs look over at Jack.

"you don't really strike me as the romantic date kind of guy so if you need to spend a couple of hours with a woman for a quickie. You are so not my type." Jack says and to her joy she receives a very satisfied smile on Gibbs's face. The backup arrives and 2 NCIS agents get out of each car to bring the arrested into interrogation. Gibbs grabs Jose and pulls him to his feet by the collar of his jacket.

"hey, you listen…" Gibbs says into Jose's ear.

"your timing… Stinks." He whispers to Jose and then he almost throws Jose into the back seat of the car.

"what did I do to you man?" Jose wines as Gibbs slams the car door.

"you okay, sir?" the young NCIS agent asks concerned looking at Gibbs. He is rubbing his now bruised knuckles.

"Yeah… wonderful." Gibbs says clearly sarcastic and irritated. He looks over at Jack who has just finished stuffing the last suspect in the backseat of the car. She walks over to Gibbs as watches as the cars with the suspects drive off.

"you okay?" she asks once they are back in the apartment. He has said a word since the cars left.

"yeah…" he forces a smile on his face when he briefly looks over at her to try and convince her he is fine. Jack noticed doing the fight that Gibbs was being a bit overly aggressive with Jose. Gibbs normally knows exactly to use the necessary but not too much force while taking down a suspect.t hat is what he is trained to do, but nothing, Jack thought he was using a bit too much force. Gibbs is standing by the window while he is packing down the equipment.

"Hey…" she says to get him to look at her. she places a hand on his chest. Gibbs looks up to meet her dark sweet softening eyes. she has bruises over her left eyebrow and some bruises on her knuckles.

"When we are done tonight…" she starts but once she looks into his soft blue eyes she loses her courage.

"you could come over to my house and we could watch a movie or crack open a bourbon?" he suggests. She looks up and smiles and nods.

"Yeah sounds great."

His eyes are soft and sweet. He gently moves his hand to cup her face and runs his thumb over the bruise on her face. she leans into his touch. They move closer to each other. Their lips are just about to touch when Gibbs's cellphone is ringing. Jack quickly moves away from him, almost like she got spooked. Gibbs growls and then answers the phone without looking at the caller ID.

"your Timing Stinks." Is all he says as he answers.

"well hello to you too, Gibbs…" Gibbs is surprised by the familiar voice and looks at the caller ID to see if he really just did say that to whom he thinks it is… the caller ID says: Director Leon Vance.


	4. an explination

**note: I don't really know what I think about how this turned out. so please let me know what you think. and thanks for reading and commenting on my story it only encourages me to write more.**

Gibbs is standing in the observation room next to the interrogation. The suspect Jose Honduras is sitting in the interrogation room. He is observing Jose.

"hey…" Jose yells. He is sitting on the chair facing the one-way mirror. "is there someone there? How about the hot chick with a nice ass?" he yells. Gibbs is trying too hard to control his anger. He normally doesn't let it bother him when a suspect is being sexually inappropriate towards his female colleagues if they don't get too handsy, but tonight. It really does bother him. something has gotten under his skin tonight. He gets easily irritated tonight. Maybe… he thinks to himself… he just needs a nice relaxing weekend in his basement working on his boat and drinking some nice bourbon.

The door opens and Jack comes in. she has a file in her hand.

"I just finished the profile. How is he?" she asks and looks through the window at Jose.

"hey, hot lady… I wouldn't mind you putting some handcuffs on me." Jose yells from the interrogation room. Jack and Gibbs just look at each other.

"you want to take a crack at him?" Gibbs asks. Jack hands Gibbs the file.

"I think I would just punch his teeth out if I went in there," Jack says with an apologetic smile.

"get in line," Gibbs says and opens the file to look over the information.

"disciplinary records… juvenile record…" Gibbs says as he is reading through the file. "history of violence… suspect of animal cruelty… suspect of domestic abuse against his ex-girlfriend…" Gibbs looks up at Jack. "how the hell did this piece of scum ever get into the navy?"

"he has narcissistic sociopathic tendencies. You heard the way he was talking to me…" Gibbs nods. "he has no respect for women. He has no respect for superior officers which is also reflected in several disciplinary actions for disobeying orders." Jack explains. "he is most likely not going to show you any form of respect or any form of remorse for selling drugs to 15-year-old kids."

"he is a disgrace to the uniform and to the whole navy," Gibbs says and looks through the window. Jose shows absolutely no signs of being uncomfortable in the interrogation room. He almost seems comfortable. He has a smug smile on his face.

"I am going to punch that smug smile off his face," Gibbs says. Jack places a hand on his chest and looks into his steel-blue eyes. There is so much anger in them. She can feel how tense his muscles are right now, from being worked up in anger.

"Hey…" she says gently to get him to calm down. "men like Jose Honduras don't define the Navy and marine core. Men like you do, Gibbs." She looks into her eyes and notices how they change from being filled with anger to being filled with something completely different… softness, passion and a sweet smile break out on his lips. He drops the file on the table and moves closer to her. The room is only lit up by the dimmed light coming through the one-way mirror from interrogation. Gibbs turns off the sound from interrogation so that he can't hear Jose's inappropriate and very demining and disrespectful invitations and comments to Jack. Gibbs is standing right in front of her. Her face is slightly lit up by the dimed lit. Her eyes are sparkling. He moves his hand to gently cup her face and she leans into his touch. She moves closer. Al she can look at is how his face is slightly lit up and how close he is to her.

The moment is broken when the door is opened, and Director Vance and Ducky enters and Jack quickly moves away from Gibbs. There is a moment of awkward silence where Leon and Ducky are just looking at Gibbs and Jack.

"what do you need Leon?" Gibbs asks irritated when no one is saying anything.

"how about an explanation?" Vance says with his arms crossed over his chest. Gibbs is just giving him the death Gibbs stare and isn't saying a word. Leon is losing his patients. He knows that when Gibbs is giving him the death stare he is not going to give up anything. "okay then." Leon says and loosens his arms to hang down his side.

"how about an update? What is the status?" Director Vance asks in a more friendly approach.

"The status is that he is a piece of crap who doesn't deserve to wear a uniform," Gibbs says and points angrily at Jose Honduras who is sitting on the other side of the window.

"I presume that the director meant other than the obvious, Jethro," Ducky says with a smile and Jack can't help but smile either. Gibbs fails to see the humor and gives Ducky the Gibbs stare.

"what can you tell us about him, Jack?" Leon asks turning to Jack who is standing next to Gibbs. Gibbs is in such a bad mood he isn't going to be very cooperative.

"well, the only thing this man has ever cared about his whole life is himself. He has bounced from job to job. Gotten into fights several accusations of abuse of previous girlfriends. This man has no respect for anything. The only person he showed some sense of feelings for is his mother. That might be the only way to break him."

"do we need a confession?" Leon asks.

"no, we got all the evidence we need to lock this SOB in a concrete box and throw away the key." Gibbs says irritated and looks through the glass as Jose Honduras who is sitting with a big smock smile on his face.

"What is he smiling at?" Ducky asks.

"he thinks he has the upper hand," Jack answers with irritation. She is starting to get irritated at this guy too.

"then we break it," Gibbs says determinedly. He receives a concerned look from both Jack and Ducky. Ducky knows from experience what it means for a suspect when Gibbs is this upset. It usually isn't going to be pretty.

"who is doing the interrogation?" Leon asks. In his voice and by the that that he is looking at Jack when he is asking he is hoping it will be her.

"I am," Gibbs says and grabs the file and walks out the room before Vance can protest.

"Gibbs," Vance calls after him and Gibbs looks back before he opens the door to the interrogation room.

"try not to break any of his bones." Gibbs just gives him the Gibbs-stare before he enters the interrogation room.


	5. interrogation

"hey man… you got no right to hold me here." Jose says the moment Gibbs enters the interrogation room. Jose is about to get up, but Gibbs just grabs his shoulder and presses him back down on the chair.

"Hey man, are you trying to break my shoulder. That is police brutality." Jose wines. Gibbs takes a seat across the table and starts looking through the file.

"We got evidence that you made drugs that you sold to underaged girls at bars and some of those girls died. You killed 3 young girls who were all in college. One of them where a younger sister of your bunkmate at the USS Georges Washington, Petty officer 1. Class Timothy Jones's sister 17-year-old Catherina Jones." Gibbs places pictures of the petty officer and his sister in front of Jose but he doesn't even flinch by the sight of the pictures. "too bad for them and too bad for you. You can't prove it was me." Jose says with a smug smile.

"We got evidence from that hell hole you call a home that you have been manufacturing MDMA."

"you have no right to go into my apartment."

"We had a warrant," Gibbs says cold not even looking at the man.

"you know I am going to hire some sexy ass lawyer who is going to kick all of your phony evidence out of the court and I am going to walk free. Just like all the other times." Jose has a big smug smile on his face and makes some victory dance movements from side to side. It is provoking Gibbs and he looks back at the window.

Leon, Ducky, and Jack are in the observation room, observing Gibbs's interrogation. They notice how difficult Gibbs has it with controlling his anger. Every time the suspect comes with some inappropriate comment about Jack or about the women laying in the autopsy as a result of the suspect's homemade deadly drugs it gets more and more difficult for Gibbs to control his anger.

"he seems unusually on edge tonight," Vance states and looks over at Jack.

"wouldn't you be interrogating that guy on a Friday night?" Jack asks with a raised eyebrow.

"he sounded on edge when I called him earlier." Leon points out.

"he presumably had a good reason." Ducky points out. Jack looks away from the two men to try and hide her smile. Jack had laughed so hard when she had seen Gibbs's face when he realized it was Vance calling him and he had yelled at him that his timing stank.

"he said 'your timing stinks.' When he answered the phone." Vance points out to Ducky with a raised eyebrow.

"oh dear…" Ducky says and looks over at Jack who doesn't seem to be paying attention to the two men's conversation but Ducky notices a smile on her lips, but he isn't saying anything.

Back in the interrogation room, Gibbs is trying hard to break the very self-confident young man with silence.

"hey, that hot lady you were with earlier… is she your wife?"

Gibbs just looks up from his papers with the Gibbs-stare.

"Nah she is too hot, and you are too old… is she military?" he asks. "I'm sure she is hot for me. she just won't admit it to you old man. you know…" he says leaning forward towards Gibbs with a smug smile. "Chicks dick uniforms." He says and starts laughing as he leans back with a big smug smile on his face when all he receives from gibs is the death-stare.

"is that why you joined the navy?" Gibbs says leaning back in his chair with a confident smile on his face. "because that is the only way you can get women to even look at you are pay attention to you is by wearing a uniform?"

The young man looks irritated at Gibbs. Gibbs notices the little pearl of sweat starting to form on the young man's forehead.

"so when you assaulted your ex-girlfriend and broke her collarbones was that because she realized what a loser you are?" Gibbs asks and shows Jose a photo from the police rapport against him for abuse of his ex-girlfriend.

"I never laid a hand on her. she was a filthy whore. I'm an American hero. I don't date whores."

"a true American hero doesn't speak about women like that. True American hero respect, support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah I know all that…"

"is that how you honor the oath you took when you entered the united states navy?" Gibbs asks.

"Oh… come on…. Cut it, man… it didn't do any of those things and I am going to leave now." Jose says and tries to get up, but Gibbs gets up and presses him back down on the chair by pressing on his collarbones.

"one more time you get up from that chair I am going to kick your ass."

Jose just laughs and looks up at Gibbs. Gibbs sits back down before he actually breaks the young man's collarbone in anger.

"hey, that hot blondie chick. Is she military? She had some pretty sexy moves."

"you mean when she kicked your buddies' ass?"

"oh, I wouldn't mind her kicking mine, man. she was hot."

"she is an Army special ops lieutenant." Gibbs says and looks down at his papers again. "she is going to shoot your sorry ass off if you don't shot up now."

"oh yeah, she is special." Jose laughs and licks his lips while he has a disgusting smug smile on his face. Gibbs looks back at the mirror where Jack is standing behind with Vance and Ducky. Both Vance and Ducky look over at Jack so see how she is reacting to the young man's demeaning talk about her. she seems to be handling it okay. Until Vance looks down at her hand and notices her fist is clenched and her knuckles are white. Vance gently places a hand on her shoulder to calm her down and he notices how tense her muscles are, from anger. She is keeping a calm face but her body langue says she is about to go in there and strangle the smug smile of Joses face with her bare hands.

"How much is she for an hour?" the man asks with a smug smile after a few minutes of receiving the Gibbs stare. In observation Jack, Ducky and Vance are expecting Gibbs to go crazy on him, but instead, Gibbs just starts laughing.

"you think that is funny ha," Jose says.

"no…" Gibbs says nonchalantly. "I was just wondering… how much do you think that drug dealer who made your mother pregnant paid her." Gibbs says with a big smug smile in return to Jose. Jose flies of the chair and grabs out after Gibbs but Gibbs was expecting it and defends himself and quickly manages to get Jose pinned to the ground and detained but not without getting in a few more or less necessary punches before two NCIS agents come into the interrogation quickly followed by Jack, Vance, and Ducky. They are keeping their distance, so they want to get too close to the very aggressive Jose who is kicking wildly with his legs while Gibbs is sitting on top of him and has detained his hands on his back.

"get him to booking." Gibbs orders once the two agents have Jose securely in their custody. The two agents drag Jose away while he is screaming and yelling at Gibbs. Vance, Ducky, and Jack come into interrogation and look down at Gibbs who is still sitting on the floor. He is bleeding from his hand.

"what was that?" Leon asks.

"rule nr. 16: if someone thinks they have the upper hand. Break it." Gibbs says confident and gets up from the floor. He looks up at Jack who has a big smile on her face while Leon seems less pleased with Gibbs's interrogation technic.

"go home, Gibbs. Work off some steam on your damn boat." Leon says and leaves the interrogation room. Jack reaches a hand down to Gibbs to help him to his feet. He has a big satisfied smile on his face. this, after all, ended up being a satisfying evening.

**Note I apologies if I offend anyone with this chapter. I really wanted Jose to be the kind of character that you want to throw things after just from reading the character. I hope you like it anyway. I promise the next chapter will be happier.**


	6. Rule 5

**Note: this chapter required quiet a few rewrites. Ducky is a really great character but also really tricky to get right. The actor David McCallum has a very distinct way of speaking which makes Ducky quite difficult to get right. Please let me know what you think of my writing of Ducky. Any ideas for improvement are more than welcome. I have one more chapter coming up with Ducky. So anyway I can get Ducky more accurate, please. Let me know.**

Gibbs is sitting at his desk finishing up some paperwork. Jack comes down the stairs from her office and walks over to Gibbs. She stops in front of her desk and waits for him to look up, but he doesn't. She places a hand on his. He lets go of his pen. She gently brushes her fingertips over his bruised knuckles.

"you didn't have to do that for me," she says.

He looks up into her brown eyes. she is leaning over his desk.

"what? I didn't do anything for you. he physically attacked me, and I defended myself."

"you through in a few extra punches."

"Are you accusing me of using excessive force, Jack?" he asks and looks into her eyes. she can't tell if he is messing with her or being serious.

"no… I'm just saying you were pretty upset before you went into the interrogation. You might have overreacted a bit because of the things he said about me."

"Why would I overreact over that?" he asks with a serious look and then breaks into a big teasing smile.

"okay… aw…" she says when she realizes he has just been messing with her the whole time. She removes her hand and straightens up.

"Hey Jack…" she looks down at him again and sees the sweet vulnerable emotional look in his eyes as he had earlier. She steps around his desk to be on the same side as him. she leans against his desk and he pushes his chair out so he can better look at her. he takes her hand in his and is gently brushing his thumb over the back of her hand. He looks up into her dark soft brown eyes. she looks tired but she still has that sweet softness in her eyes. She is expecting him to say something when his expression suddenly changes, and he says out loud.

"you need something doc?" Jack looks confused at Gibbs and then turns her head to see Ducky standing right in front of the desk. Jack nearly jumps off from the desk and pulls her hand away from Gibbs, but Gibbs is holding on to her hand firmly and gives it a little squeeze. Jack is starting to get tired of all the interruptions tonight. Every time she starts to get the feeling there is something that Gibbs wants to say someone or something interrupts. She is trying really hard to not let it show. But it is long past midnight and it is getting harder for her to hide it.

"no… I was just observing."

Jack forces a smile on her face and turns around to face Ducky.

"hey, Ducky. I thought you had left for the night." Jack says trying real hard to put on a friendly smile.

"yes, I just needed to finish up the paperwork." Ducky places his final autopsy rapport on Gibbs's desk. He can clearly sense he interrupted something.

"Ducky for the past 20 years you have been telling me that no one can rush the dead and that the dead are in no hurry and that they are not going anywhere," Gibbs says quoting Ducky on multiple occasions. It makes Jack laugh.

"indeed."

"The paperwork can wait. The paperwork is not going anywhere either."

"I am surprised that you have actually listened to me, Jethro. Yet you still manage almost on every case to burst into autopsy and demand an update sometimes even before I have opened the bodybag and welcomed my guest." It is amusing to Jack hearing the two old friends arguing like have worked together for so many years and they know each other so well and yet they still manage to get on each other's nerves with their little quirks. "and I would the 2 of you still be in the office at this time of the evening?" Ducky asks looking down at the paperwork in front of Gibbs.

"Just finishing up some paperwork," Gibbs says and picks up the pen with his free hand.

"go home, Jethro. The paperwork is not going anywhere. Take the weekend off like the rest of your team." Ducky says. Gibbs's eyes briefly shoot up to meet Jack's eyes. It is so brief but it generates a soft smile on Jack's face that doesn't go unnoticed by Ducky.

"ill go get my stuff," Jack says and quickly leaves the bullpen and runs up the stairs to her office. It doesn't go unnoticed by Ducky how Gibbs is following her with his eyes until she disappears around the corner on the top of the stairs.

"don't waste good… isn't that one of your rules?" Ducky asks. Gibbs look confused at Ducky.

"yes rule 5. You don't waste good."

"Does that mean good timing too?" Ducky asks and receives a very puzzled look by Gibbs.

"are you interpreting my rules and using them against me?" Gibbs asks with a slight irritation in his voice.

"they are your rules to live by. You have been preaching them to everyone around you from the moment I meet you. you want everyone else to follow your rules, but you won't follow them your self?" Ducky asks. Gibbs looks a bit more irritated now. He isn't even going to hide his irritation anymore. Gibbs is just getting tired of this night with all of the interruptions and now Ducky using the rules against Gibbs. Gibbs just wants to get out of here and spend a nice quiet time in his basement. Drinking some bourbon and work on his boat, with Jack.

"what are you talking about Ducky?" Gibbs asks and drops the pen and stands up. He moves the chair into the table and starts to put on his jacket.

"her friend didn't have a family emergency. She canceled her weekend plans, Jethro. She chose to go on the stakeout with you. You have a good opportunity, Gibbs. Don't waste it." Ducky says in a deeply emotional tone but all he receives from his friend is a sideways smile and a shake of the head.

"opportunity for what, Doc?" Gibbs asks a bit louder then he intended and also way more irritated then he intended but it did express very clearly how he feels and how he isn't able to control his irritation and frustration anymore tonight.

"I have known you for a long time, Jethro. I have seen how you look at her and how you seem to be spending quite a bit of time in her office on social visits." Gibbs pretends like he has no clue to what Ducky is insinuating. "you used to come to me when you had anything personal issue. That doesn't happen very often these days."

"well we should bring it up to our next couples therapy, Ducky," Gibbs says with a dry smile. "I don't think I got the memo that we got married, Ducky," Gibbs says and smiles. Ducky is just getting irritated. Gibbs clearly doesn't want to understand what Ducky is trying to say.

"you like her. Tell her." Ducky says more bluntly. He knows that is sometimes quite often, the only way to get Gibbs to understand things.

"you are imagining things, Ducky. You need to go home and get some rest too." Gibbs says with a laugh. Ducky looks around and sees Jack walking into the bullpen with her jacket on. The moment she sees Duckys look back at her and then to Gibbs again she can see her timing stinks right now. She clearly walked in on a heart to heart conversation between two friends that she clearly shouldn't be a part of. Gibbs walks ver to Jack and places an arm around her shoulders.

"ready?" she asks a little uncertain looking at Gibbs and then at Ducky and then back to Gibbs. Gibbs gives her a quick nod with the head as he is adjusting the collar of his jacket.

"good night Ducky," Jack says and gives Ducky a quick kiss on the cheek and a quick hug.

"good night my dear," Ducky says in his traditional old English manner.

"goodnight Doc," Gibbs says a little dry and tells Ducky with a classic Gibbs stare not to mention anything about their previous conversation to Jack.

"I guess the director isn't the only one whos timing stinks," Ducky says with his classic Ducky lecturing voice to Gibbs. Gibbs just shakes his head in defeat.

"goodnight Ducky," Gibbs says and leads Jack to the elevator by an arm around Jack's shoulder. Jack looks back at Ducky.

"whos timing was he referring to?" Jack asks looking back at Ducky and then at Gibbs.

"no one," Gibbs says and presses the elevator button. He can feel Jack is looking at him to try and read him for an answer but he is not going to look at her.


	7. Duckys tale

**Note: Ducky is VERY difficult to write. I have been bench watching NCIS for the past few days to get a sense of Ducky's way of speaking. please let me know what you think.**

Leon walks down the stairs to the bullpen where he is met by Ducky. Ducky had gotten stuck in his thoughts after he watched Jack and Gibbs leave the office.

"doctor Mallard… you got a moment?"

"evening director. What can I do for you?" Ducky greets in his usual tearful manner despite the hour of the day.

"I have a question for you." Vance Starts. "you are a close friend of Gibbs, right?"

"I like to think so. Yes." Ducky agrees.

"have you noticed that Gibbs has been unusually on edges tonight with the suspect."

"on edge? Yes. on usually? No."

Director Vance looks confused at Ducky.

"let me tell you a story from before your time here at NCIS director." Leon isn't really in the mood for one of Ducky's tales, but he needs to figure out what is going on with his senior field agent, so he is willing to take a chance.

"before your time as director, an attempt was made on miss Schuito's life.

"on Abby Schuito? Someone tried to kill Abby?" Director Vance asks shocked. Ducky nods.

"yes. A rather unpleasant man if I may express myself so bluntly, director" Director Vance gesture an allows.

"after the attempted was made. The team looked into the world of Abby Schuito and found that she had taken out a restraining order against a gentleman she had dated the year before. When Gibbs asked her why she didn't come to him, when she had trouble with the man, her answer was that she wanted the man restrained. Not tied to a pulp and beaten with a baseball bat."

That makes Leon laugh.

"that does sound very much like Gibbs."

"exactly my point director." Vance looks confused at Ducky. "we both know that Gibbs sees his team as family. Especially Caitlin, Ziva, Abby and Elanor and that there is nothing he wouldn't do to protect his family if anyone is threatening or in any other way disrespecting them." The director nods. "we also know that Gibbs has a problem with controlling his temper when it comes to men who abuse or disrespect women. Especially, women, in uniform and women he cares about." Director Vance nods. He has seen Gibbs lose his temper on a suspect who was getting handsy with female agents before.

"Agent Sloane and I profiled that our suspect Jose Honduras was a narcissistic sociopath. Which means he treats women in a very disrespectful manner. As agent Sloane put it: he sees women as sex toys."

Director Vance is starting to see where this is going.

"one can only assume based on the profile, the suspects record and the way he spoke about Agent Sloane to Agent Gibbs in interrogation what he might have expressed of desires towards Agent Sloane prior to being in interrogation."

"if he had been disrespectful to Jack when they arrested him, that would definitely piss Gibbs off."

"It hasn't gone unnoticed by me, Director… that Gibbs and Agent Sloane has become rather close friends over the past few years."

"I have noticed that too, Doctor," Vance says.

"Agent Sloane might not be a team member like Caitlin, Ziva and Elanor or Abby but Gibbs certainly has her back at any moment and there is nothing that Gibbs wouldn't do to protect agent Sloane from any harm or disrespect from men like tonight's guest in interrogation."

"Are you suggesting they are becoming more then just friends, Dr.?" Leon asks with a curiously raised eyebrow. Ducky has a mischievous smile on his face.

"I have seen no proof of such, Director." Dr. Mallard says with a sneaky smile.

"but…" Leon Asks to get him to elaborate with a curious smile on his face

"I have however observed some indications of progress between your two senior agents, Director, that indicate they are becoming very close personal friends."

"anything causes for concern?" Leon asks as they start walking towards the elevator.

"concern? no. cause for joy? Definitely." Dr. Mallard says with a big smile. "if I may elaborate a bit on my tale from earlier. "Dr. Mallard says as they are waiting for the elevator. "Anthony DiNozzo later told me that when Gibbs along with Timothy and Anthony went to question the unpleasant gentleman Gibbs had told the young man that the only reason, he was still able to walk was due to the fact that Gibbs wasn't aware of his existence until that day." That makes both of the two men laugh.

"That definitely sounds like Gibbs," Leon says and the elevator doors open.

"I Would say, Director…" Ducky starts as they enter the elevator. "tonight's events in interrogation was a natural reaction of a man protecting his family." Leon nods and the elevator doors close.


	8. maybe not so bad timing

**note: This is the final chapter of my bad timing story. I hope you enjoyed it. Place let me know what you think and remember to check my Christmas story out.**

Gibbs and Jack enjoyed a quiet ride to Gibbs's house. Gibbs looked over at Jack whenever he had to stop at a traffic light. Just to see if was asleep. His mind kept spinning about what Ducky told him. why would she lie to him about why her friend didn't come? He couldn't imagine why she would lie to him. over the past 2 years or so they have grown closer. She was the first person ever he told about Shannon and Kelly and what he did to Pedro Hernandez. She told him and showed him what happened to her in Afghanistan and she told him about her daughter. So why would Jack lie about a visit from a friend from California? Gibbs's mind is spinning. He cant seem to figure out Jack lately. Her behavior has been different since he heard her tell Bishop about her friend from Sandiego coming to visit.

Doing the ride to Gibbs's house Jack's mind is spinning too. She thinks about the last 3 weeks. This weekend didn't go the way Jack had originally planned when she invited an old flirt from San Diego to visit 3 weeks ago. Things have changed between her and Gibbs over the past few years. She hasn't always been aware of what has happened between them. Sometimes she has felt like things were going really well and they would spend many hours together and other times they barely saw each other in the office and even less outside the office and she has sometimes felt like he was distancing himself from her. it had been one of those periods of 3 weeks where they barely saw each other. For 3 weeks he hadn't even brought her coffee which she has come to enjoy and maybe a little bit expects him to do.

She had had a bad day and Gibbs hadn't been around all day. When her friend from San Diego, that she had had a flirt with a few months before her relocating to the east coast, had contacted her she had invited him to come to visit without a moment of hesitation. At first, she was excited her friend was coming to visit but then a few minutes after he had accepted her invitation it had knocked on her office door and Gibbs had entered with a cup of coffee for her in his hand. He had asked her if she had any plans after work and when she had told him she didn't. He had asked her to come over to his house for steak night. They had spent a nice relaxing evening together and she had stayed for the night. She had fallen asleep on the couch and in the morning when she was slowly waking up, she could feel he was pulling the blanket up over her shoulders. As the days went by and Gibbs brought her coffee every day. Some days they would spend time in her office, just chatting. One day Jack had a terrible headache and she had taken a nap on her couch in her office. She woke up when she felt someone was placing a blanket over her and kissed her on the top of her head. She was sure it was Gibbs. She had decided, when the tip about the deal came in, to call her friend and cancel his visit. Ducky had overheard her conversation on the phone with her friend and he had asked her about why she would cancel. She didn't have an answer so she just said something about her help was needed on the case and it wouldn't be fair to her friend to invite him and then not be around to spend time with him. Ducky clearly didn't buy her reason. He saw right through her white lie. Jack had been too fast to announce her friend's visit to Bishop who of course immediately had told Torres and McGee who then had talked about it in the bullpen where Gibbs had overheard it. all Gibbs hadn't said anything to here while Torres had been busy asking about the nature of the friendship. Gibbs had told Torres to stop it. Jack hadn't been sure why Gibbs would tell Nick to stop teasing her. Was it jealousy or just simply Gibbs looking out for her? her mind kept spinning.

They arrive at Gibbs's house and once they are in the living room Gibbs informs her, he has some good bourbon in the basement. They walk to the basement together and Jack notices how Gibbs seems a bit off. He hasn't said a word since they left the office. That comment from Ducky about someone else timing stinks tonight has been echoing in her head. Something happened between Ducky and Gibbs while she got her stuff in her office.

After a few minutes in the basement where Gibbs hasn't said a word or even looked at her, she is losing her patients.

"what is going on Gibbs? You have been quiet the whole ride and you have been cranky since we left the stakeout."

"Why did you lie to me, Jack?" Gibbs asks. Jack looks confused at him.

"I haven't lied to you. I wouldn't lie to you."

"you canceled your friend's visit. You told me it was him who canceled. Why did you lie to me?"

"come on Gibbs. Okay, so I didn't tell you the details about my friend's visit. So what? It isn't like you share all the little details in your life."

"Ducky told me you canceled to go on the stakeout with me. that doesn't make any sense Jack?"

"Ducky told you?" Jack asks. "okay. I see. Ducky came to my office yesterday. He overheard my conversation with my friend on the phone. I never thought he would turn around and tell you everything I told him."

"did you talk about me?" Gibbs asks. He sounds angry.

"yeah and other things."

"Stop talking about me to my colleagues. Jack. I told you before."

Jack is angry now. "okay so it is okay for you to talk with Ducky and Vance about me but not me talking to Ducky."

"not about me," Gibbs says and throws some screws and nails on the table from a glass jaw on his table. He is standing with his back to her as he calms down before he speaks again. "if you have something to say about me… say it to me."

" yeah well, it is kind of difficult to have a conversation with someone who doesn't like to talk."

"What do you want to talk about Jack?" Gibbs asks and turns around to look at her. his blue eyes are filled with emotions, but they are not as soft and sweet as they were earlier.

"well…" Jack says. her body languages show hostility. "let's start with what happened tonight."

"Okay…" Gibbs says and then not more. Jack is waiting for him to start talking but he doesn't say anything. She lets out a resigned laugh and throws her hands up in the air in defeat. "Gibbs come on damn it. you are so confused and frustrating. You don't talk about your feelings and yet you are sending out all of these confusing messages."

"I am confusing?" He yells and pushes himself off from the table he has been leaning against. He steps closer to her.

"you took my hand and then as soon as it got real for you. You jump off like a scared kid. You are flirty and playful but as soon as things get real you pull back. you don't think that is mixed signals and confusing."

"maybe I pull back because I don't get any reciprocation. I show you how I feel, and I don't get nothing back, Gibbs…"

"maybe because I keep getting interrupted," Gibbs says in a lot softer voice.

"oh, so if we hadn't been interrupted you would actually have started talking to me."

"maybe…" Gibbs says honestly. That wasn't exactly the answer Jack was hoping for.

"well too bad we will never know," Jack says irritated. She is still standing right in front of him. Waiting for him to do something or say something. But all he does is look at her. he has the same look in his eyes like he does when he is trying to read a suspect. "You snooze you lose," Jack says irritated and is about to walk away from him. he gently but firmly grabs her wrist. She looks down at the ground. She is not going to look at him.

"Jack." He says wanting her to look at him. His voice so soft when he says her name.

"I don't want to lose you. you are the best friend I have had in a long time. I care about you… a lot." He admits. She looks up. Tears in her eyes.

"then why are you hesitating?" Jack asks.

"because… you are my friend and I don't want you to get hurt or lose you. All my past relationships have failed and most of the people I have loved in my life are dead. People tend to get hurt when I get too close to them." He admits.

"I can take care of myself," Jack says. her voice is softer now too.

"I know. But… I was not the only one hesitating…" he says looking into her eyes for some sign of her agreement. A little smile on her lips tells him she knows he is right.

"I don't want to ruin our friendship, Jack… and that tends to happen when things develop too fast between friends."

"I know." She simply responds. None of them seems to really know what to do next. "Gibbs… it is 4.30 in the morning. There is no more pizza delivery, bad guys to catch or phones ringing. No more excuse."

"There are always more bad guys to catch."

"zip it," Jack says and they both smile and lean closer to each other right before their lips touch in a sweet kiss Jack's phone rings.

"you got to be kidding me," Jack says and takes out her phone. It is Leon Vance calling. Both Gibbs and Jack look at the blinking screen where Vance's name is blinking. Gibbs presses the red button on the screen.

"did you just ghost Vance?" Jack asks.

"it is your phone. You were probably asleep canceled the call by accident in your sleep." Gibbs says and shrugs casually before he walks over to the table and pours two glasses of bourbon. Jack places her phone on silence mode and back in her pocket before she walks over to Gibbs who hands her a glass.

"so, Jack why did you really cancel your friend's visit?" Gibbs asks after he has taken a sip of his glass. Jack is just smiling at him with her soft brown eyes as she is taken a sip of her glass. "I don't believe it was because you enjoy a late Friday night stakeout so much." Gibbs jokes.

"well depends on who I am on a stakeout with," Jack says.

"come on Jack. You really want me to believe that you actually liked being in a crabby stinky apartment in the most disgusting DC area tonight?" Gibbs challenges her.

"well, it is not about the where or when but about the who?" Gibbs just looks oddly puzzled at her which amuses her.

"Gibbs my point is…" she places the glass down on the table while she is considering how to explain her point to him. "there is no such thing as the perfect place or the perfect time for having a good time. The only thing that matters is who I am with. When I am with someone, I care about it doesn't matter if we are working on a case, chatting in my office about my painting or working on your boat in your basement. Because…" she says and steps closer to him. "I'm spending time with you and that is what matters to me."

"so…" Gibbs says in a challenging tone and with a devious smile on his face. "you would rather spend time with me in my basement then go on a fancy date?"

"you remember how my last fancy date ended?" Jack shoots back. Gibbs doesn't know if he should laugh at her comment or not. "okay serious?" she asks. He nods and takes a sip of his glass. "it depends on who the fancy date is with. But in general, I would rather be here with you." she admits.

"you are the first women to ever say that she likes spending time with me down here." He says and turns to the table to find something. "well second actually." Gibbs adds with a smile on his face that doesn't go unnoticed by Jack.

"who was the first?" Jack asks.

"Kelly…" Gibbs says and finds some sandpaper on the table. "she used to come down here and help me." Gibbs hands Jack a block with sandpaper on it.

"that explains a lot," Jack says, Gibbs looks confused at her, so she elaborates. "why you spend so much time down here. It reminds you of her." Gibbs nods.

"don't analyze me, Jack." Gibbs walks over at starts working on the boat.

"I'm not. Actually, I can't" Jack admits and walks over to the opposite side of the boat as Gibbs and starts working on the boat.

"what do you mean you can't?" he asks and walks over to her. he is standing right behind her and grabs her hand to adjust her work.

"with the growth rings, Jack." He says and then places a kiss on her neck. He feels how she leans back against his body. She stops her work and turns around. He has his arms around her.

"This could change our friendship." He says as he looks into her dark brown eyes.

"I know." She simply says before she leans in and kisses him in an almost magical passionate kiss.

"change isn't always a bad thing, Gibbs," Jack says before he kisses her again. She is leaning against the boat and he is as close to her as possible.

"I know." He says and leans in and places kisses down her neck.

The kisses grew more heated and after a while, Gibbs stops and pulls back before they go too far too soon. He looks at Jack to see how she is reacting to him moving away from her but luckily, she seems to agree with his decision. Gibbs steps away from her and grabs his glass and takes sip and hands her glass to her. she pushes her self away from the boat. She has a big smile on her face, and she keeps looking at Gibbs. It almost makes him very self-aware. He is much older than her and it has been a long time since he last had been in a romantic relationship. He thinks he must be a little off his game. He didn't use to have trouble with starting a relationship before, but he has never had a relationship with anyone who knew this much about him. she knew all of his secrets. This with Jack is different. Not only does he work with her but he knows so much about him. They are just standing in the basement. None of them really know what to say. Which is unusual for them. Normally their conversations are relaxed and comfortable. Gibbs notices Jack's seems to be cold. She has goosebumps on her arms.

"you are cold Jack?" he asks.

"no, it is fine." She says.

"come on." He takes her hand and the bottle in his other hand and he pulls her towards the staircase.

"I thought you wanted to work on your boat." She says. "or am I not good enough to help you." She challenges him. he stops and looks at her. "you could just teach me." she says with sparkles in her eyes. she is challenging him now. he is normally not letting her challenge him like that, but tonight he actually wants to play along with mind games.

"Okay..." he says and walks closer to her. "But you gotta pay attention." He says and places the bottle on the table and they walk back over to the boat.

"I'm a fast learner. but it depends on the teacher," she says with a challenging smile in her eyes. he walks over to her and stands behind her. She takes the block of sandpaper that she used earlier. He is standing right behind her and guides her hand. She is distracted by how close he is standing right behind her. His face is right next to hers and in between his instructions, he is placing kisses on her neck, which isn't helping on her concentration.

This weekend hadn't gone the way Gibbs had planned. He had planned to spend a quiet weekend in his basement. Enjoying some nice bourbon and just turning his cellphone off and working on his boat. When he had heard Torres, McGee, and Bishop talking about Jack having a friend from Sandiego coming to visit it had bothered him more then he liked to admit.t hat was why he had chosen to go on the stakeout alone. That way he had something to occupy his mind with. He didn't like to admit it but the thought of Jack having an old friend, despite the nature of their friendship, didn't feel right for Gibbs. It had affected him more then he liked. He had been more cranky than usual and everyone, especially Vance and Ducky seemed to notice. When Jack showed up at the apartment he was confused but also relieved to see her there. It enjoyed spending time with her, but all of the interruptions made him irritated which, on top of a not great week, made it difficult to hide. He wanted to spend time with her and now… here in his basement he finally got to spend time with her. no interruptions… just the two of them. Maybe Ducky had been right… which he usually is… it wasn't just everyone else's timing that was off tonight. So was his.

As Gibbs and Jack were working on the boat together in the basement, Gibbs decided to not wait any more good time and just go with the flow and see where things are going. As Jack said: not all changes are bad.


End file.
